Yukihiro Takahashi: S & D

People posting RIP messages on Takahashi's Facebook profile :-(

Noooooooooooo

ah fuck.

Oh lord, I am going to be so eternally bummed out about this......fuck

Seems it's true.

aww no way :(((

One of the absolute pillars of Japanese modern musical culture.

Thinking about the thousands of late middle-aged, natsukashi salarymen crying into their whisky over this.

One of the absolute pillars of Japanese modern musical culture.

Thinking about the thousands of late middle-aged, natsukashi salarymen crying into their whisky over this.

RIP :(

Noooo! RIP Yuki... what a legend.

Amazing work and then some. Sad to hear it!

ah, goddamnit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYGjl9gp4kA

the best

I’m devastated. Not only a fantastic musician and songwriter but also a fashion icon and by all accounts a very nice guy. He felt like such a kind soul. He left behind so much music but it still felt like he had more left to give. For now the song that feels appropriate was this one. Such an absolute legend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPGsYpsEIg

Love both the photo and the opening bit from this piece from 2018:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/11/23/music/ymos-yukihiro-takahashi-celebrates-pair-40th-anniversaries/

The past few years have been a boom time for Japanese reissues, as labels dredge up everything from ambient obscurities to glossy disco-pop for the benefit of listeners who missed them first time around. For Yukihiro Takahashi, it’s all a bit confusing.

“Do you understand that?” the 66-year-old musician and style guru asks, pondering the current appetite for vintage Japanese sounds. “I don’t get it. It was all just copies of music from overseas, wasn’t it?”

That is a bummer! I've only barely dipped into his solo work so I have little sense of what he was doing at present... but I think I imagined I would "catch up" before he passed. RIP.

one of my fave yuki productions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxSkKWQBNjQ

rip

Gutted. I listened to the What Me Worry album obsessively during the first year of the pandemic. This song and performance in particular helped me a lot during some really hard times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUmG1SlR8fs

I posted the wrong clip (as much as I also love that video). I meant to post It's Gonna Work Out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBFpX2e3thQ

Love that video so much, especially the degree to which YT is enjoying himself compared to the other two. The song is credited to all three but I love the implication that it’s Takahashi’s song and the other two fucking hate it

RIP handsome genius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gZLXah5HXY

Oh yeah that one rules too. I gif’d part of the intro to use on my music blog. I think Barakan wrote the lyrics but I am pretty sure he was half-translating something YT wrote. And when he sings it he’s kind of emphasizing the wrong parts. It’s really cool because the lyrics are so good. And the tune itself, it’s kind of the quintessential Takahashi techno pop song. The first few seconds always give me such a rush.

Some really amazing lyrics in that one too

"There are things beyond the control
Ain't no point in worrying about them
So get older take a look around
Can't you find a little joy in something?"

Also

"People say fate is what you make it
But people say anything that suits them
Whatever it was took me by surprise
By bring you crashing into my life"

I’m sure I’ve posted this before but it’s utterly insane to me that he was front and center on 3 incredible YMO solo albums, plus 3 great solo albums of his own, that incredible first Beatniks album, plus countless productions and songwriting credits for other YEN records artists, all within the span of about three years. One of the most incredible runs in pop music history and it’s even more impressive since I think all of that music really holds up today.

i'm just hearing about this. RIP to an absolute legend and an easy top 3 choice for "best singing drummer of all time"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMxAWP1xUfI

Vocals in this are so lush.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK RIP. i got really deep into his solo catalogue this year :(

Shit. RIP to a real one.

Ah shit, I was hoping he'd have years left yet. Absolutely fantastic drummer in Sadistic Mika Band days, and exactly the right musician for YMO. Amazing singer and writer too, RIP big guy.

Relistening to ×∞ Multiplies (original release obv) just now and I'm still amazed at this existing. I finally did some digging to find out what the hell was with the comedy sketches and that's how I learned about Snakeman Show (run it through autotranslate as needed).

Yep, that led me to this album, which is still one of the strangest LPs I own:

https://www.discogs.com/master/288369-Snakeman-Show-Presents-Melon-And-Exotic-Sounds-Of-Water-Melon-Group-Pithecan-Thropus-Erectus

That's...quite a title.

still at a loss for words, just gonna post one of the prettiest songs ever written

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFGV2bYcgys

Gets it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq3jk1nPEwk

frogbs, that song is lovely - thank you!

just been listening to this classic, so sad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUjWXopQZDY

I am deep in the Takahashi YouTube rabbit hole, someone just uploaded a really good quality rip of the excellent 'Boys will be Boys' concert film today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0BGPoA6qYw

I had a look at Steve Jansen's Twitter feed.

Noticed he's been posting lovely pics and memories of himself with YT all the way from the end of last year.

Speculation, but I'm guessing he knew what was coming :(

I’ve seen that speculated before. What worried me is when Metafive silently fell apart and the word was that YT just wasn’t feeling good enough to play anymore. The new album is nice but Takahashi himself was barely on it. Plus he’d been silent on social media for like a year when previously was pretty active. So I guess the signs were there that things weren’t progressing in the right direction but I never really wanted to think too much about it.

今日、定期検診。まんまと嫌な予感が当たり、
僕はまた別の治療始めます。兎に角それしかないんで、前に進むには、、、
別に再発までは言われてないですよ！
まだ負けられない、前をを向いてね。

— yukihirotakahashi (@room66plus) June 18, 2021

he'd mentioned having to start treatment for some other health condition in june 2021 and then cancelled live appearances a few months later, at the time citing recovery from his surgery the previous year, but you can probably read between the lines a bit there.

yeah looking at some news reports it appears he was in rough shape for a while but apparently he didn't want to say anything about it until he got better. poor guy.

Takahashi's presence on here - and Nelson's on "Tomorrow's Just Another Day" - was one of the greatest things to come out of 1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxkSwiOJnjg

That Boys Will Be Boys film is a damn treat.

been listening to this performance a lot lately. this is such a pretty song and one I can't get out of my mind since he passed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL-t5g23VBw

I'm not clear on the details but his 60th birthday party felt like a real event, he did two performances, one focusing on his technopop stuff and the other on his more recent singer/songwriter material, both with completely different bands. from the videos it looks like pretty much everyone showed up. I am pretty sure this is how Metafive started. as I said at the time I don't know if there's another person on this planet who could've put a band like that together.

I love that clip, so great! Is that from a longer concert film, frogbs?

I am so eternally sad about his passing. I'm glad that there's so much brilliant music and video out there, that I haven't yet explored, and I can easily distract myself, it is really comforting.

Really love that Boys Will Be Boys footage. As I mentioned the other day, the performance of It's All Gonna Work Out is so good. I love that it has some Tomorrow's Just Another Day songs on there. That's one of the albums that really made me fall for him and get fully into YMO.

I found Chronograph and Stella, I assume there's more but I can't find it on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FohmnZct4wk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW9GkN8HAdg

no clue what he's talking about with Hosono in the second one but it's still heartwarming to see. despite everything YT still looks nervous on stage! and the song they play is almost too much to bear right now

I found this also today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rvMcSMiDoM

Love the little nods to 'Computer Game' in the opening track.

God, this too, there's so much out there...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXUQQKchGuc